1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a printing device to which print media can be supplied from multiple conveyance paths, and more specifically relates to a printing device capable of reliably preventing collisions between print media and controlling print media conveyance appropriately to the situation.
2. Related Art
Manual feed printers are often used to print booklets such as bank passbooks. Such manual feed printers have an opening provided in the front for a user to insert a print medium such as a passbook. The print medium is then ejected from the opening (the insertion opening) after printing. The printer may also have a means for correcting skewing of the inserted print medium.
Ideally this kind of printer is provided with a conveyance path other than the path for manually inserting print media, can print to other types of print media such as paper rolls or precut sheets, and has a variety of print functions.
However, a way to prevent print media from colliding at a junction of the conveyance paths in a printer having multiple print media conveyance paths.
In a printer having a main feed section and a manual feed section, JP-A-H06-271152 proposes providing a locking mechanism that prevents releasing the manual feed table to prevent print media from both routes from overlapping.
In a manual feed printer having a function for correcting skewing of the print medium as described above, the print medium conveyance roller in the skew correction unit usually also functions as a feed roller that feeds the print medium to the print position. When such a printer is provided with a second print media conveyance path, the junction of the manual-feed conveyance path and the second conveyance path is generally designed to be upstream from the skew correction unit that also functions as a feed roller.
However, a magnetic reader is often provided between the print medium insertion opening and the junction in this type of printer, and because of the distance between the insertion opening and the junction, the user is unable to see junction. Consequently, the user may insert a passbook or other print medium into the insertion opening without seeing that another print medium is being supplied from another conveyance path, and the print media are likely to collide.
Additionally, the skew correction unit requires a member that contacts the print medium to correct any skewing, and this member is implemented as a shutter (gate) capable of opening and closing the conveyance path downstream of the conveyance roller. When executing the printing process on print media supplied from the other conveyance path, the shutter must be open to supply the print medium to the print position because of the location of the junction. Therefore, when inserting a passbook or other print medium from the manual insertion opening, the user may mistakenly shove the print medium past (downstream of) the shutter even when no other print medium is at the junction.
Moreover, when the print medium from the other conveyance path exits from the front, the print medium inserted from the insertion slot and the print medium being ejected may also collide.
The technology described in JP-A H06-271152 cannot solve this problem.
The disclosure is directed to a printing device in which print media can be supplied from multiple conveyance paths and which can reliably prevent collisions between print media and control print media conveyance appropriately to the situation.